Restoration Home
Amazing old buildings from across the United Kingdom are beginning to get a new life under new ownership. Individuals, couples and families attempt to restore or remodel them, mostly into homes. Buildings range from mansions and manor houses to decrepit pumping stations, churches and schools. Most of the building have been abandoned for a while and the challenges the renovators face can be quite significant. Research into the architecture of the house is done and put into context alongside a genealogy of its occupants and benefactors. the research gives context to the style and renovations while also giving the buildings a more human element. Caroline Quentin narrates and visits the sites, interviewing the families and commenting on the status of the projects. Historian Dr Kate Williams researches the people associated with the building while Architectural Expert Kieran Long put style, materials and process into historical context. Not all projects are even remotely complete by the end of the episode. Occasionally projects are re-visited later.
- 2011-2016
- 3 seasons
- Reality
Amazing old buildings from across the United Kingdom are beginning to get a new life under new ownership. Individuals, couples and families attempt to restore or remodel them, mostly into homes. Buildings range from mansions and manor houses to decrepit pumping stations, churches and schools. Most of the building have been abandoned for a while and the challenges the renovators face can be quite significant. Research into the architecture of the house is done and put into context alongside a genealogy of its occupants and benefactors. the research gives context to the style and renovations while also giving the buildings a more human element. Caroline Quentin narrates and visits the sites, interviewing the families and commenting on the status of the projects. Historian Dr Kate Williams researches the people associated with the building while Architectural Expert Kieran Long put style, materials and process into historical context. Not all projects are even remotely complete by the end of the episode. Occasionally projects are re-visited later.
Season 1 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 2011
Episode 1
Thomas a Becket Church
58 mins
St Thomas a Becket church in Somerset is on the heritage critical list and badly in need of rescue. A flood in 1968 led to the church's eventual deconsecration and it is just one of many churches in Britain that has been declared redundant. Decline in church-going and amalgamation of parishes have put a huge swathe of our architectural heritage in peril.
Episode 2
Nutbourne Pumping Station
58 mins
The story of a derelict 1932 water pumping station in West Sussex, England, converted into a modern family home by Nick and Brigitte Sweet. The programme uncovers the history of a building created in the 1930s depression to bring clean water to the local population.
Episode 3
Stoke Hall
58 mins
New owners have the challenge of restoring a mid-18th century Georgian mansion in Derbyshire, UK.
Episode 4
Stanwick Hall
58 mins
Stanwick Hall was in poor condition and on the Buildings at Risk Register. Years of neglect left fungus growing on walls running wet with damp and timbers so rotten that one good storm might down the roof. Evidence is uncovered showing the hall was built as a result of a financial scandal of the early 18th century.
Episode 5
Calverton Manor
58 mins
Calverton Manor is a collage of different architectural styles with parts thought to date back as far as the 14th century. And it comes with its very own legend involving a rich widow, the local butcher, pots of gold and murder.
Episode 6
Big House
59 mins
Once a building of grandeur and influence, Big House in Landshipping, Pembrokeshire has been a ruin for 100 years. A local man attempts to turn it into his home.
